Dr. Jeff Konin

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Cannabis & College Athletics

Dr. Jeff G. Konin, Ph.D., ATC, PT, FACSM, FNATA, Clinical Professor, Florida International University

As the social acceptance of cannabis has rapidly increased in the United States, the rules surrounding its acceptance in the world of college sports has not been as receptive. The primary governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has become more engaged in the awareness of the increased reported use of amateur athletes and has accordingly adjusted its cannabis testing guidelines whereby the threshold for a positive test has been increased and the punitive sanctions have decreased. Nonetheless, the growing interest of various forms of marijuana use and the reasons for intake as described by the athletes themselves warrants a much closer look at the potential therapeutic benefits and short/long term risks to performance.  This presentation provides an overview of the landscape as viewed by University administrators, sports medicine, sports performance, and mental health professionals, and the student-athletes. 

Dr. Jeff Konin is a Clinical Professor and Director of the DAT program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. At FIU, he is also the Director of the Global Initiative for Cannabinoid Research and Education.

As the President and Founder of Konin Consulting, LLC, he advises individual athletes, Universities, healthcare professionals, sport organizations, and companies within the cannabis industry. He is a consultant to the University of Alabama and University of Georgia Athletics Departments. Nationally, he served as the founding chair of the Cannabinoid Task Force for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Dr. Konin is also a member of the American Cannabis Nurse’s Association (ACNA), the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association (AMMPA), the Society of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC), the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and the Florida Medical Marijuana Consortium Scientific Program Committee.

Dr. Konin is the co-editor of 25 textbooks, numerous peer-reviewed publications, and has shared his expertise at professional conferences throughout the United States as well as in many countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Norway, Romania, England, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Austria. Among the many awards he has received for his lifetime body of work, Dr. Konin is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame and holds Fellowship status in both the NATA and the American College of Sports Medicine.